The importance of learning foreign languages is demonstrated by the prevalence of foreign language courses in secondary schools, colleges, universities, and private language teaching centers. Furthermore, innumerable books, audio tapes and compact discs, and videos, CD-ROM, and other such media are devoting systems and methods for teaching foreign languages. The common pedagogical methods are time consuming and ineffective because they do not leverage the student's knowledge of a native language in order to teach the foreign language. Rather, these common pedagogical methods teach foreign languages by, first teaching words, then, teaching conjugations, and, finally, teaching sentences. As such, these methods can be time-consuming and ineffective because of the time needed before the student works with the phrases that are commonly used in communication. (See Jessica M. Werstler, “Total Physical Response Story Telling: A Study in Actively Engaging Students Across the Modalities” wherein Werstler states that of 95% of college graduates that studied a foreign language, only 5% of those reported felt comfortable using that foreign language).
Other systems and methods have sought to improve upon the conventional systems for teaching foreign languages. U.S. Pat. No. 5,882,202 to Sameth et al., for example, discloses a method and apparatus for aiding foreign language instruction that operates using a computer. Sameth's invention teaches foreign languages using a story by displaying selected frames about the story and dialog balloons that include phrases in the foreign language. Translations of the phrases are also displayed. As a further aid, a pronunciation guide is displayed through the animated representation of a person's lips in order to show the correct pronunciation of the words. Sameth's device, however, fails to disclose a system and method where languages are taught by interspersing phrases in the native and foreign language in a media presentation.
Another such system and method is disclosed by U.S. Pat. No. 6,341,958 to Zilberman. Zilberman's method comprises, first, developing in the student the skill of simultaneously reading, listening, and repeating a recorded text in the student's native language. Next, the student listens to a recording of the predetermined text in the foreign language and simultaneously reads and speaks the text. Finally, the student is instructed to write as many of the words and phrases as possible in the foreign language based on memory. Zilberman's system and method, however, fails to disclose a system and method for learning a foreign language that uses multimedia sources to teach the student.
Another such system is disclosed by U.S. Pat. No. 6,736,641 to Quiroz. Quiroz's patent discloses a teaching method that uses a one-page folded pamphlet. One portion of the pamphlet features words in the native language and another portion of the pamphlet features words in the foreign language. When folded, the sections allow the user to understand and assemble sentences in the foreign language. Quiroz's device, however, is limited to a distinct number of words and is not useful to learn a foreign language in a conversational manner.
Another such aid for learning a foreign language is disclosed by U.S. Pat. No. 5,178,542 to Chigrinsky. Chigrinsky discloses a book with pictures and words whose pages feature alternating transparent sheets, which overlay the book pages. The transparent overlay pages translate the text of the book's pages in the foreign language. In this manner, the student is able to use the book to, first, read the text in the native language, and second, review the text with the translated text alongside the native language.
Another such method for teaching a foreign language is disclosed by U.S. Pat. No. 5,649,826 to West et al. West's patent discloses a method for teaching a foreign language using entertainment on a media series. The media series features the native language as well as the foreign language in a series of lessons, which progressively use more and more of the foreign language. In this manner, the student is progressively exposed to more and more of the foreign language as the series progresses, with the final lesson containing the highest percentage of the foreign language.
While the above systems, methods, and devices disclose varied methods for teaching a foreign language, none of the devices allows media to be used in order to teach a foreign language wherein phrases or complete thoughts are presented, first, in the native language and, second, in the foreign language. Thus, there remains a long felt need in the art for such a device.